Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Herega Amyot & Serville, 1843
Dicrobdallus Stål, 1868
Callibdallus Stål, 1868
Explanation of Names
Greek
apios 'pear[-shaped]' +
meron 'thigh'
(1) (NB: Name not related to Latin
apis 'bee').
From Greek apios, long, and meros, thigh (Amyot & Serville, 1843).
Numbers
Currently, 10 species are known from the United States (with another species described by Szerlip
(2) presumably awaiting official description a la
(3)):
crassipes group (6 species): A. californicus, A. cazieri, A. crassipes, A. floridensis, A. montanus, and A. spissipes.
pictipes group (1 species): A. flaviventris.
longispinis group(?)(1 species): A. longispinis.
subpiceus group(?)(2 species): A. immundus and A. subpiceus.
Identification
Variably colored: red with blackish-brown markings or brown with yellowish markings. Dense short hair on head, thorax, and legs. Distance between simple eyes greater than the distance between compound eyes. 2nd antennal segment rather comblike, not subdivided into small ringlike units. Nymph is dark and reddish.
Range
Transcontinentally in the United States, except the Pacific Northwest, with greatest diversity in the southwestern states. Globally, the genus is known from the northern United States to Argentina.
Habitat
Meadows, fields, gardens, deserts, mountains, coastal regions.
Food
Other insects, especially bees.
Life Cycle
Eggs are attached to foliage. Nymphs, like adults, are voracious predators. 1 generation or more a year in the North.
Remarks
Some spp. have sticky material on foretibiae to hold prey
(4). Females also use these plant resins in maternal care
(3).
Szerlip
(2) described several other species in a dissertation (see
this forum topic) that got formally published only two decades thereafter
(3).
